Thursday, December 15, 2005

"I Smell Something"

I got the idea for my topic today from Ms. Susie. I got the best laugh from her blog this morning because I could relate to #6 (I just went back to see which number it was and laughed out loud again!). Now, I'm not the "smeller" in this household - it's my daughter. She's our little hound dog. I suppose she get's her spectacular sense of smell from mommy. I can smell anything - which is amazing because I used to smoke and smoked for MANY years. Can't imagine the smells I would smell if I had never smoked (how many smells could a smeller smell, if a smeller could smell a smell?) - I am HOT tonight!!

Okay, back to my daughter - she's three and she smells everything! When she first started talking one of her first sentences was "I smell something" and she would say this with a puzzled look on her face. It dawned on me on day that I say that as well but only IF I smell something. She goes around finding things to smell. She started smelling her fingers about four months ago. Every time she touched something I would catch her smelling her fingers - "smells stinky" she sometimes says. One day she said her fingers smelled like birthday cake - we had some of Bubby's (brother) birthday cake earlier that day.

We get a lot of hand-me-down clothes from family and a friend of mine (we are extremely thankful). Every time a bag of clothes comes into the house she smells them and tells me who they belonged to - and she's always right!

Lately, we have been trying to break her of the finger smelling habit and now she is sneaking to smell her fingers. She pretends to wipe her nose (A LOT) so she can smell her fingers. I can't help but turn my head a laugh - I'm easily entertained plus, these days don't last long so I try to get all the joy I can.

One morning in worship services, while she was facing me sitting on my lap playing so nicely with my necklace, I had to sneeze, and sneeze I did. Well, I tried to cover my mouth but I guess a tiny bit of "spray" escaped passed my hand and got on her hand - she about freaked out! I mean FREAKED. By the way, we sit in the fourth bench from the front, right in the middle (I like to be able to see and I'm less distracted that way). All I could think about was how many people saw this horrid look on my three-year-old daughter's face because I sneezed on her. Not only that, she SMELLED her hand where the spray landed and the look on her face got even worse. I almost had to get up and leave because I was afraid I wouldn't be able to contain the laughter. Somehow, I did manage to contain myself.

I've noticed since that morning that she has a "wetness" problem as well - she doesn't like a wet spill on her and she won't hold your hand if it's wet (like right after you've washed your hands). On another occasion, while I was down here on the computer, she and Bubby were upstairs watching a show when I heard her screaming - it was one of those screams I don't hear very often and believe me, she screams a lot! She screamed and stomped and shook - she was so angry. I ran to the bottom of the steps and there she was, stomping and screaming and shaking saying "BUBBY SNEEZED ON MY BLANKIE!!!!!" Whatever! I'm just glad my son decided to sneeze on something other than the wall. All I heard from her the rest of the day was "are you going to wash Bubby's sneeze off my blankie?"

They are so amazing. What would I do without the constant entertainment?


My little smeller.

6 comments:

Anne said...

Yep, that's her sound asleep at the dinner table.

My husband and his dad are big fans of the "head smelling". I always liked to smell their breath especially while their sleeping. Not now though. Well, I'll still smell my daughters. My son's smells like grown-up breath - yikes!!

Anne said...

By the way, I'm NOT a big fan of the stinky rear either - Eeewww!!

Foo said...

I was trying so hard to stay out of this whole smelly business. I really was.

Ain't gonna happen.

I'm afraid this feller's a smeller, too. I can be in the middle of a conversation about the weekend plans Sweetie has lined up for us when...

"Wait. Do you smell that?"

"Could you be a little more specific?" she asks, patiently.

Anyone else might suspect that this is a diversionary tactic designed to dodge the topic, but my wife knows me better than that. She also knows the conversation won't continue until I've identified the mystery funk.

"Something tangy, but kind of... I don't know... spoiled," I say. "Like that pie."

"I thought 'tangy' was a taste. And anyway, when have I ever served you a pie that smelled spoiled?"

"Don't play at semantics with me, Woman."

And so it goes until I finally hunt down the empty, unrinsed can that had held pineapple chunks earlier in the day.

Finger sniffing too. I don't think I'm quite as compulsive about it as your daughter, but if I get something under my fingernails or have the lingering smell of bread on my hands, it drives me bug-scuffling nuts. Dishwashing liquid is often the only thing that will get the smell off.

I think it all started when I was in grade school. After we'd eaten our lunches and drunk our chocolate milk, we were sent out the the playground to wear ourselves out. The playground was coated blacktop, and we always came back in with very dirty hands.

The memory of sitting at my desk, rubbing my hands together to slough off enough skin to get them clean remains with me nearly 40 years later. As does the smell that no amount of rubbing could remove.

One of my friends' mother sent those little individually-wrapped wet wipes with him, so he was about the only kid who had the chance to clean his hands after recess. Money was tight in our family, then; we couldn't afford Handi Wipes.

But all is well this morning. My fingers still smell like Herbal Essence shampoo.

Oh, one last thing, since you snuck in that stinky rear comment while I was typing this. Our cats occasionally have lapses in personal hygiene that result in what Sweetie and I have dubbed "cheesy butt". I barely refrain from chastising them about this, except that I'm all too aware of how they bathe themselves.

It's that whole Golden Rule thing.

One of my brothers sent me a birthday card this year, which said something to the effect that if you ever stopped to think of all the things in your house that your pets sit on, you'd have to move.

Anne said...

Okay, first of all - I do know how to spell, well, kinda sorta. But, I'm trying to assure everyone that I know the difference in "there, their, and they're". Oh, and let's not forget "where, were and we're" and "buy, bye, and by" - you get the point. I know this, but my hands have a bit of trouble sometimes when I'm in a hurry.

Foo - you're killing me! I just love it. No wonder our country is full of perfumey hygiene products. I have problems with THOSE smells as well. We were at lunch after church this past Sunday and a family came in and all I could smell was the fabric softener on their clothes. Cheap perfume will set me into a migraine. In my car, I have to recirculate the air because I'm afraid of getting a headache from the smells seeping in from the outside.

I'm obsessed with how my house smells too. I don't have candles or "plug-in" thingies. I want my house to smell like home - not the detergent isle at the local mega-store. It's quite a challenge when you don't use bleach or smelly products.

Back to the funky funk. We recently had something smelling in our fridge and even the visiting in-laws were commenting. "Well, find it" I'm thinking to myself. "Don't just talk about it." It turns out it was cabbage in the bottom drawer. OOoooo!

I've got different smells going on this morning. I woke up to the smell of pee - yes, pee! Apparently my precious "smeller" climbed in bed with me at some point during the wee hours and had wet pee all over her. Luckily she pee'd in her bed instead of mine but still. Everyone had to have a bath this morning and now the beds (mine and hers) have to be changed. Mine because there is now pee residue in it. Gotta keep those butters clean!

My son had pee on the back of his undies. "How in the world did you get pee on the back of your underwear?" - poor child. Apparently he climbed down to the bottom bunk to snuggle up with sis and instead found a puddle of pee.

We're having a pee fest here! And I'm hearing loud slamming sounds while I type. Must go! Enjoy the smells!

Suzy-Q said...

Let me introduce myself if you don't know me...I am Uncle Joe's wife....

You all have me laughing out loud!! I have a sensitive smeller too and I have some smells to add to the list....

Body odor...bleh. You can't tell me you don't smell your nasty no-washin funk! (and if you stink in the morning it is only because you went to bed that way!)

Breath of strangers. Do not get close enough to me for me to smell your breath. I will hold my breath till you or I move. I work in a medical office and have to fill in at the front desk sometimes and I hate for people to have their breath come right on me when they are checking in. It stinks and now I have their germs. I hold my breath the whole time they are checking in and keep hand sanitizer handy at all times. (and cigarette breath makes me gag)

I hate the smell of the kids at my daughters school when they come in from recess. Hot sweaty stranger kids.


I have a niece who is a smeller too. Once when she was little she put her hands in her pants (in the back) and then put her hands to her nose and got the most horrified look on her face and went hysterical screaming, "I HATE THAT SMELL!!!" I am thinkin, then why did you stick your hands in your pants?!

I love the smell of Joe when he wears Obsession. His nose itches when he gets too much cologne on so he just wears enough for me to smell when I am really close. Very sexy.

When I buy clothes at a yard sale or a second hand store I have to wash the clothes before trying them on. I don't like the smell of strangers houses on clothes I am about to buy.

My sister in laws house smells very faintly of cat pee and I hate it. She is a very clean woman but the minute I walk into her house it is all I can smell for the first few minutes til I get olfactory fatigue.

I gotta get off here I am laughing too much and I will wake Joe who is trying to take a nap.

:O)

Suzy-Q said...

Let me introduce myself if you don't know me...I am Uncle Joe's wife....

You all have me laughing out loud!! I have a sensitive smeller too and I have some smells to add to the list....

Body odor...bleh. You can't tell me you don't smell your nasty no-washin funk! (and if you stink in the morning it is only because you went to bed that way!)

Breath of strangers. Do not get close enough to me for me to smell your breath. I will hold my breath till you or I move. I work in a medical office and have to fill in at the front desk sometimes and I hate for people to have their breath come right on me when they are checking in. It stinks and now I have their germs. I hold my breath the whole time they are checking in and keep hand sanitizer handy at all times. (and cigarette breath makes me gag)

I hate the smell of the kids at my daughters school when they come in from recess. Hot sweaty stranger kids.


I have a niece who is a smeller too. Once when she was little she put her hands in her pants (in the back) and then put her hands to her nose and got the most horrified look on her face and went hysterical screaming, "I HATE THAT SMELL!!!" I am thinkin, then why did you stick your hands in your pants?!

I love the smell of Joe when he wears Obsession. His nose itches when he gets too much cologne on so he just wears enough for me to smell when I am really close. Very sexy.

When I buy clothes at a yard sale or a second hand store I have to wash the clothes before trying them on. I don't like the smell of strangers houses on clothes I am about to buy.

My sister in laws house smells very faintly of cat pee and I hate it. She is a very clean woman but the minute I walk into her house it is all I can smell for the first few minutes til I get olfactory fatigue.

I gotta get off here I am laughing too much and I will wake Joe who is trying to take a nap.

:O)